Thursday, September 29, 2016

OK, people! Yeah, I have another release to announce! But first let me talk! The last release I made was Tuesday, StarCluster 4 - Toolbox 3: Starships. After I released it, I remembered a supplement I wrote for StarCluster 2 back in the last decade called the Engineer's Guide. I found the source files and realized with a little work, this could be a great resource for StarCluster 4. I began working away all day Wednesday, and finished up late last night. Then I began thinking...

I have already sold a number of Toolbox 3's, and this, in a sense, does much the same thing. It allows you to create spaceships. Now Toolbox 4 does it in a different way - an old school, math-heavy, system by system and subsystem by subsystem way, where Toolbox 3 was choose from these hulls - choose from these options - add stuff up - done.

So, I should have named Toolbox 3 "Quick and Dirty Starships"! I got that! Too late now! Anyway, if you bought Toolbox 3 and were wanting something more like Toolbox 4, let me know by PM. I will send you the pdf for Toolbox 4 gratis. Anyway, here's the blurb:

StarCluster 4 Toolbox 4 is a tool designed to let you create and control every system and subsystem of the starships and stations for your StarCluster 4 Game. Unlike Toolbox 3, Toolbox 4 is math heavy and incredibly detailed, but yoou can do whatever you want, at the price of detailed calculations. You can create:

In StarCluster 4 - Toolbox 3, we have a starship creation method, and the two sheets for these starships - a control sheet for running a ship - fuel use, cargo carried, passenger cabins occupied - and a damage sheet for dealing with damage in a way that makes sense - every hit damages some system, and you can see how much damage each system has.

For PDF From Precis Intermedia: http://www.pigames.net/store/product_info.php?products_id=849

For PDF from One Book Shelf: http://www.rpgnow.com/product/194474/StarCluster-4--Toolbox-3-Starchips

For Print from Lulu: http://www.lulu.com/shop/clash-bowley-and-albert-bailey-and-klaxon-bowley/starcluster-4-magazine-2-technology/paperback/product-22878328.html

Friday, September 23, 2016

Alright! Today's_ StarCluster 4 release is StarCluster 4 Toolbox 2: Setting Tools! This baby contains a revamped Association setup tool, a rewritten Creating the Cluster tool with a new Politics section, to make completely different kids of clusters! No FTL, Star Empires, Diplomacy, New Colony... all sorts of variations! Also a whole slew of culture and city creation tools. Enjoy!

I have taken down - "made private" - all the StarCluster 2 support material that was out there. There was a ton of stuff, and it sold really well - most of it was at least Copper at RPGNow - but screw it. StarCluster 2 has not been for sale since 2011, and not been available at all since this spring. Hell, StarCluster 3 is no longer available! SO I cleaned out my StarCluster back-catalog at Precis Intermedia, One Book Shelf, and Lulu. All gone! :D﻿

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

"Well, clash..." you say. "You have finally gone off the edge haven't you?" I shrug and nod. "I'm still falling," I reply, "And... I... I kinda like it."

Announcing StarCluster 4 - Magazine 1: Social. For once I release something for reading, not directly for play. These are all articles and essays written about the StarCluster 4 universe, if you want to get deeper. Brindella's Guide to Active Fashion, Starship Crews, Marriage Customs of the StarCluster, the Diaspora and Cultural Emulation, and Religions of the StarCluster. Enjoy!

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

So tonight I finished writing and editing the first two StarCluster 4 Magazines. I had to rewrite one article entirely, and added some to a few more. I actually found a factual mistake on a technical essay by Albert - he had inadvertently switched the anode and cathode on a description of a fusion drive - so now that I have sent it to him for fact checking I am sure he will find a dozen idiotic mistakes in my technical articles!

Thursday, September 15, 2016

Klax and I have finished with all three species creation tools in the StarCluster 4 Toolbox 1: Peoples. We have fined down Aliens and Uplifts, Robots, and Created Creatures: Androids and Bioroids until they work easily and intuitively, and produce very similar output. Here are an uplift, a robot, and a bioroid, and you can see how similar the results are.

Just released! StarCluster 4 - Dark Orbital! If you ever wanted to play a broke, somewhat criminal uplifted racoon with cut rate implants that don't... always... work quite as expected, this is your game!

BTW, this is the sixth StarCluster 4 game I have released this year.

For the print game: http://www.lulu.com/shop/clash-bowley-and-albert-bailey-and-klaxon-bowley/starcluster-4-dark-orbital/paperback/product-22863950.html

For the pdf: http://www.rpgnow.com/product/193431/StarCluster-4--Dark-Orbital

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

Another new robot model, this one the JeshenBot Model from Jorbara Robotics. It is designed by Jeshen to fit in among Jeshen seamlessly, even to the extent of the extraordinary vision and taste capabilities, able, like biological Jeshen, to taste intent in a casual setting. Although this model could be made to look like a "real" Jeshen, the company prefers to avoid any uncanny valley problem by giving the bot a hard, protective ceramic exterior.

Saturday, September 10, 2016

OK! I have three StarCluster 4 Toolboxes done, waiting for Lulu to get me proofs. Last night I finished two Magazines, Culture and Technology. That clears my backlog of articles and essays! I'm sure more will come up soon!

Tuesday, September 6, 2016

I am currently working on StarCluster 4 Toolboxes - short, focused collections of tools available in pdf and print; 32-64 page saddle stitch is my range. Right now I have Toolbox 1: People with Aliens and Uplifts, Robots, and Created Creatures - Androids and Bioroids; and Toolbox 2: Setting Tools with Creating the Company, Making the Cluster, and Setting Generators, both between 32 and 64 pages.﻿ Toolbox 3: Spaceships is more distantly in the works as well. Toolbox 4: Things and Toolbox 5: GM Tools are at the conceptual stage.

I am also looking to create some "Magazines". These would be similarly-sized, but essay-based rather than tool-based, where I or one of our other authors delves into various subjects in some detail. Right now I am looking at Magazines on Technology, Social, and Rules topics.

Saturday, September 3, 2016

A customer asked me about how senses work in StarCluster 4, and I realized I hadn't put anything in the game about how they work! I have upgraded all 6 StarCluster 4 titles - including Dark Orbital, which is almost ready for release - with a single page on Senses, along with a few typo fixes. Here it is if you are interested!